Psalms 72:18–20

Psalms 72:18 — "Praise be to Yahweh God, the God of Israel"

The Hebrew opens with barûk YHWH Elohim, Elohei Yisra'el — a berakah, or blessing-formula, one of the most ancient liturgical expressions in Israel's worship. The doubled divine title is deliberate: YHWH (the personal, covenantal name revealed to Moses at the burning bush, Ex 3:14) is identified with Elohei Yisra'el, the God specifically bound to Israel by covenant. This is not the generic divine being of philosophical speculation but the God who acts in history, makes promises, and keeps them. The phrase "who alone does marvelous things" (which immediately precedes verse 18 in the Hebrew and is often printed as the second half of v. 18 in critical editions) sharpens the point: levado, "he alone." All wonder, all miracle, all saving power belong to him. The doxology therefore serves as the theological verdict on the entire psalm: whatever Solomon or any Davidic king accomplishes — feeding the poor, crushing oppressors, extending peace to the ends of the earth — is ultimately Yahweh's marvelous doing, not a human achievement.

Psalms 72:19 — "Blessed be his glorious name forever!"

Yikaret kevod shemo le'olam — "May the glory of his name endure forever." The word kavod (glory) carries enormous theological weight throughout the Hebrew Bible: it is the weighty, luminous presence of God that fills the tabernacle (Ex 40:34), that Isaiah sees enthroned in the Temple (Is 6:3), that Ezekiel watches depart and return (Ez 10, 43). Here the psalmist prays that this glory — not a monument to human kingship — will fill the whole earth: yimallē' kevodo et kol ha'arets, "and may his glory fill the whole earth!" The phrase echoes the seraphim's cry of the Trisagion and reaches forward to the New Testament vision of the earth transformed by divine presence. The exclamatory Amen and Amen — the doubled Hebrew 'amen we'amen — is a solemn liturgical ratification, a congregational seal of assent. The Psalter does not merely assert God's glory; it invites the community to ratify, to co-sign, to say yes together.

Psalms 72:20 — "This ends the prayers by David, the son of Jesse"

This verse is a scribal colophon, a concluding editorial note marking the end of a collection. The word kālû ("are ended/completed") signals finality. Notably, the psalms that follow — including many explicitly Davidic psalms in Books III–V — show that this colophon does not mean there are no more Davidic psalms, but rather that a particular organized collection has reached its close. The phrase "prayers of David the son of Jesse" (tefillot David ben Yishai) deliberately invokes the full Davidic lineage, grounding the Psalter's authority in the covenant God made with the house of Jesse (1 Sam 16; Is 11:1). The colophon thus functions as both a literary hinge and a theological statement: the "prayers" of David — Israel's ideal worshiper, the "man after God's own heart" — have been organized, transmitted, and handed on as a sacred deposit.

Typological and Spiritual Senses

Read through the lens of Catholic typology, the doxology of vv. 18–19 anticipates the Christological doxologies of the New Testament (Phil 2:11; Rev 5:13). The Davidic colophon of v. 20 points toward Christ as the ultimate Son of Jesse in whom all Davidic prayer reaches its consummation (Rom 1:3; Rev 22:16). Just as the Second Book of Psalms closes with this upward gesture of praise, so the Christian life — and ultimately history itself — closes not in human achievement but in the eternal Amen of the Lamb (Rev 3:14; 22:20).